Taonga television seen as essential

Press, 11 October 1985, Page 29

Taonga television seen as essential

PA Wellington Maori language television is one of the keys to the survival of the Maori language, the Waitangi Tribunal has been told. Dr Richard Benton told the tribunal that the Maori language had reached a historic crisis point and that its fate lay in the hands of three main agencies: the broadcasting system and particularly television, the home, and the school. “If the third channel is awarded to a group com-, mitted to using this medium to advance the maintenance and revival of the Maori language, this is likely to

have a profound and positive effect on the chances for long-term success for the efforts now being made by thousands of parents through kohanga reo,” he said. Dr Benton heads the Maori unit of the Council for Educational Research, but said he was speaking on his own behalf. He said the combined effects of urbanisation, modernisation, coercion, and propaganda had driven native Maori speakers to the brink of linguistic suicide. It was therefore vital to have a powerful Maori lan-

guage presence on television whatever decision the Broadcasting Tribunal made Dr Benton suggested that if the warrant did not go to the Maori-controlled Aotearoa Broadcasting Trust, Television New Zealand should live up to its name by transferring control of one of its present networks to Maori broadcasters. He said that if the guarantee made to the Maori in the Treaty of Waitangi that their taonga or treasure of language would be retained, substantial Maori language presence in television was not only desirable but essential.